Washington state machinists on Friday narrowly voted to approve a Boeing contract offer to bring 777X airliner work to the Puget Sound area, dealing a blow to Southern California’s efforts to bid for one of the most economically promising new aerospace programs in decades.

The 51-49-percent yes vote means that California has virtually no chance to land a major piece of the production work for the 777X, the world’s largest and most efficient twin-engine jet that Boeing hopes to start building in 2017, with deliveries beginning in 2020.

The Golden State was one of 22 states that bid on the 777X work.

California’s bid to win 777X work revolved around Long Beach’s Boeing C-17 military cargo plane factory, which is scheduled to close in 2015, leaving about 2,000 employees without a job.

A no vote by the International Association of Machinists District 751 would have given California a chance to help revive its aerospace sector, battered by consolidations and job cuts over the years.

However, Friday’s yes vote dashed prospects for Long Beach to pick up a sizable share of what is expected to be about 10,000 high-paying Boeing jobs.

“Obviously California would have loved to bring the 777X jobs to Long Beach,” said California Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance. “As chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Aerospace, I will continue to reach out to Boeing to see if there still might be opportunities to bring some parts of the manufacturing and assembly of the 777X. ... I will continue to reach out to Boeing and work with the governor and Legislature to save the Boeing jobs at the C-17 plant.”

This was the second time Boeing employees voted on a 777X offer from Boeing. The first vote, on Nov. 13, was a resounding rejection of an offer that would cut employee wages and benefits.

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Boeing responded by announcing that it would consider other areas to build the 777X, even though Puget Sound is the aerospace giant’s traditional commercial manufacturing hub.

This latest Boeing offer resembled its original proposal, with some extra perks, but was far from the union’s bargaining position.

“Boeing was asking its workforce for a fundamental shift in benefits that would require significant sacrifice,” said Loren Thompson, aerospace analyst at the Lexington Institute think tank in Virginia. “Defeat of Boeing’s proposed changes (would have signaled) that the race is now on to get the biggest commercial aircraft program we are likely to see in America for a generation.”

With a union no vote, California would have been a frontrunner to gain 777X work, Thompson said.

“Although some places are obviously cheaper than Southern California, no place brings more experience to the table,” he said.

Before the results were announced, California Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, called Friday’s vote “a huge deal” for Southern California and Long Beach.

“I think our chances are excellent,” said Lowenthal, who is running for mayor of Long Beach. “We’re ideally situated geographically. We have the ports nearby, which is an important part of this business. We have a huge trained workforce here with the C-17. We have an existing facility. We have top-notch higher education.”

Even if Boeing ultimately chooses to pass over California for 777X production, the state and specifically the Long Beach area still has great promise, Thompson said. For example, Long Beach could still get some “overflow or breakout” commercial production work from Boeing, Thompson said.

“You have thousands of skilled workers in Long Beach whose major program is going away,” Thompson said. “It’s a little hard to believe that Boeing is just going to walk away from that workforce when there’s no other workforce like it anywhere other than Puget Sound.”

Boeing already has increased its emphasis on Long Beach for commercial work in 2013, moving hundreds of engineering and other positions to the Southern California city from Puget Sound in an effort to geographically diversify the company’s operations.

If Long Beach fails to gain any 777X work, Lowenthal said the process of competing for the plane will pay off for the region.

“Either way, this opportunity has shown the country how ready Long Beach and California are to lead the new aerospace and technology economy,” Lowenthal said. “We have all of the tools here in California to build a strong economic future across multiple industries. Aerospace is huge but the biotech industry is one that we are also hoping to attract.”